Purpose: The past decade has seen considerable debate about how to best evaluate the efficacy of educational improvement initiatives, and members of the educational leadership research community have entered the debate with great energy. Throughout this debate, the use of randomized experiments has been a particularly contentious subject. This…

This paper gives an overview of research on modelling science competence in German science education. Since the first national German educational standards for physics, chemistry and biology education were released in 2004 research projects dealing with competences have become prominent strands. Most of this research is about the structure of…

This paper describes an experimental teacher education program organized in terms of the "social process model," a theory of educational interaction that stresses: 1) the ecology of social environments; 2) the rules and roles involved in given social episodes; and 3) the status of social episodes as interpersonal games. Classrooms are…

Using examples of school change, this document discusses both Swedish experiences with local educational development and theories of schools and change. An introduction gives background information on Sweden's schools and its parlimentary activities on education. Section 2 reviews the history of local educational development, especially…

In the course of carrying out the technical tasks of the school, teachers encounter common problems that do not impose on those in managerial roles. School organizations are typically structured in such a way as to prevent the information sharing and processing necessary to confront these problems. A collective decision-making structure for…

Strategies and systems for evaluating educational programs are detailed in an attempt to fulfill the need for a centralized evaluation capability. Since a fundamental prerequisite for program evaluation is a statement of the objectives of the educational system, a set of system goals is proposed. These goals would provide a framework of criteria…

Optimization procedures for a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) system were developed using iterative development and tests of a series of instructional decision models (IDM). The result was a total systems effort in which the instruction was carried on by a dialogue between a computerized tutor and the student. A profile of the student, student…